Currently, transparent conductive oxide materials like Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) have been widely applied to a display device as transparent electrodes, especially as touch electrodes (touch sensor) in a touch panel, due to their stable chemical performance and high conductivity. In particular, as shown in FIG. 1, a basic structure of the touch panel comprises on a base plate 01, a transparent conductive oxide layer 02 comprising a touch electrode pattern 02x in the X direction and a touch electrode pattern 02y in the Y direction, an insulating layer 03, a bridging layer 04 for bridging touch electrodes in the X or Y direction, and a wiring layer in a peripheral region. The touch panel can adopt arrangement manners shown in FIG. 2a and FIG. 2b. As shown in FIG. 2a, the bridging layer 04 is arranged on the transparent conductive oxide layer 02. As shown in FIG. 2b, the bridging layer 04 is arranged below the transparent conductive oxide layer 02.
In case a touch electrode pattern is formed by a transparent conductive oxide layer in the above-mentioned touch panel, due to the specific color of the transparent conductive oxide in the pattern, the pattern is easily noticed by naked eyes in the ambient light, and thus is not acceptable by the customer. Therefore, as a common solution, some layers 05 are attached or arranged on the touch panel.
According to the sequence for arranging layers in the touch panel, the above solution for example can be realized in the following three manners. As shown in FIG. 3a, an optically functional layer is attached on the touch panel to achieve the pattern blanking effect. This is advantageous in that the process for attaching is simple. However, the functional layer significantly reduces light transmittance of the touch panel, and traces of wear easily develop on a surface of the touch panel after using for a long time. As shown in FIG. 3b, a SiNxOy layer is formed on the transparent conductive oxide layer of the touch panel. As shown in FIG. 3c, an OC layer (over-coating layer, which generally is made from an organic material) is formed on the bridging layer of the touch panel. In this case, the blanking effect of the OC layer is made use of. An additional mask process is required for forming the OC layer during fabricating the touch panel. If a photo process is used in the mask process, the investment in equipment is increased, and the fabricating cost is increased accordingly.
Therefore, it is a transparent conductive oxide layer with a better blanking effect and reduced cost is of benefit to one skilled in the art.